vancouver

I stole this post from my husband's blog. But I figure I'm allowed to because I wrote half of it...

Also, my husband is pretty amazing.



Tiffany and I just got back from a great trip to the west coast. I was work ing in Vancouver for a week, and when I was done, Tiffany flew out to meet me and we spent 10 more days in vancouver and seat tle. We had a lot of fun. We spent a few days in down town Vancouver, our hotel had bikes so we rode around the sea wall to Stanley park and Granville Island. We ate good food and drank good coffee and enjoyed being together after a bit of a crazy month.

The rest of the time we spent visiting a branch of our family that we don’t get to see enough. My mom’s sister married my dad’s brother so they’re kind of like second parents and my cousins are like second siblings. We really enjoyed spending time with them and discussing various family traits and skin conditions. They were great hosts, great cooks, great conversationalists (we did talk about more than skin conditions…) and great fun. A big thanks to all of you who generously made room for us in your schedules, in your houses, and in your cars. We had a really great time and we love you all.

p.s. a special thanks to Mikayla for giving up her pretty bed room and also a special apology that we couldn’t get Tiffany to dance for you…

Vancouver Island from kyle thomas on Vimeo.

also, check his flickr to see photos of our trip!

for Aleksa

yes.
a very strange world

but also...
an adorable world.

i have a show coming up!







mark on your calendars
february 18-21*
sensory life, infinite world
at the u of w theatre
choreographed by jolene bailie
danced by me, mark medrano, claire marshall, freya olafson, tyrell witherspoon, emma rose and sarah helmer
let me know if you'd like tickets or get them at www.gearshifting.org
i'd love to see you there!

also, there's a write up about the show in the new issue of 'dance current' magazine, if you're interested!


*the 18th is a 'preview night' which means it's cheaper and sort of dress rehearsaly - 8:00. 19th and 20th at 8:00, 21st at 4:00

also, my hair is hilarious in that first picture.

aalso. if you're interested, here's a paragraph from jolene's website talking about this work:

Inspired by the seemingly limitless possibilities and co-operative relationships within animal and plant life, Sensory Life, Infinite World, is a glimpse into a conceptual and supportive ecosystem that functions with harmony, co-existence and fluid interchange. The viewer is welcomed into an imagined utopia where life is poetically lived by invented organisms without the framing of our regulated time, the dominant pull of gravity or the constant weight today’s modern society. An invitation to view and appreciate a transformation of the human form as it reveals a pure and intuitive intelligence while accepting a ripple effect felt through embracing relationships and foreign matter.

in other words, it's an imaginative little show. the beginning is like watching an aquarium... or a screen saver. everyone doing their own thing. harmonious. no judgement. happy little animals going about their activities. and then society evolves, i guess... things change. there's the addition of humour, and also of judgement.
i feel like i'm butchering this synopsis because it's hard to explain without it sounding either cliched or vague... but that gives you an idea, at least.

maybe i'll explain more later
goodnight!

a quick post about a new internet endeavour
and also about the amazing talents of my husband
check out
www.olivindesign.com

for aleksa

aleksa and i made a deal
blog
facebook
and euro rail

i can't quite bring myself to join facebook quite yet. i'll have to spend some time getting used to that idea.
and i can't afford euro rail quite yet, either. but i must admit, i am much more excited about that part of the deal than facebook.

so the logical thing to start with is, of course, the blog.
for the first time since march.

i'm at a loss...

i guess i'll just start with this:

i had a lovely weekend... despite warnings of constant snowfall, christie, lindsey, little blue and i trekked out to the cottage for our 4th annual cottage weekend. unfortunately i didn't bring a camera this time but you're probably not missing out on much since we spend most of the weekend having a chick flick marathon. i have to admit. from time to time i like a good chick flick and i've been sorely disappointed in the garbage that gets made these days. so we rented some oldies. when harry met sally. sleepless in seattle. you've got mail. breakfast at tiffany's and some others too but we didn't have time for them all. but it was really quite nice to relax and sit around with good friends. and good food. and delightfully cheesy movies. and caesars, wine and martinis. and of course we squeezed in some dutch blitz. and some wedding planning too (christie's getting married!).
thanks ladies for a lovely weekend.


and stay tuned for future posts
maybe i'll write one about moving
and one about adventures in scarf making
and one about how my husband has a secret blog that he hasn't told people about... (actually, maybe i won't blog about that. i'll just tell you right now. www.kylethomas.ca in the news section. go look at his pretty pictures and surprise him with some comments!)
but i'll just start by posting this. i wonder how long it will take for anyone to find it!
i love you all. sorry about being out of touch
xoxo

perhaps it's lame that my first post in over a month is a movie trailer but...
this made me smile today
it may or may not have also made me cry. don't ask me why. something about those pyjamas...

well. today i got an email, a face to face complaint and a comment saying that you're all tired of my get well slug.
i still like him.
he's up on our wall.

so here i am to tell you about something new.
something new....

hm...

here are the new things of my life:

1. last weekend lindsey and i went on our third annual cottage weekend extravaganza. our attendance was down by about a third but we drowned our sorrows in martinis and ended up having a delightfully good time. we ate delicious things and stayed in our pyjamas almost the whole time and added a couple new elements to our annual festivities:

a. outdoor fitness - we went on a nice long walk on the lake and discovered some fun wintery things such as twigs coated in ice, the sculptural qualities of snow and the delights of hand knitted hats.













and
b. indoor fitness (we're not normally very active on these weekends)

which brings us to new thing number 2:
after much deliberation and finding some forgotten walmart gift cards from our wedding, kyle and i bought a wii. lindsey and i broke it in with much hula hooping and various other amusing aerobic exercises. including lots of laughing at our ridiculous moves. here's lindsey skiing:



i left out the picture of myself hula hooping in my pyjama pants because it made my bum look really weird...

number 3:
i started dancing again yesterday. my legs are sore.

number 4:
i got 5 old pairs of jeans patched today. it's like i all of a sudden have 5 new pairs of jeans except they're already nicely broken in.

number 5:
kyle and i became wedding photographers last month. it was fun and we got paid in money AND delicious handmade cannelloni.

number 6:
i'm the last of the sisters to post about this but this month was the first month of our newly initiated sister's swap. unfortunately i don't have a picture of what was given to me... aleksa sent beautiful little boxes with chocolate in them, andi made a lovely country-lovin' mixed cd and shared some poems that have been meaningful to her, and tami made a pretty little pendant and a catnip/flax cat heart which petigre loves to rub her face in. and i made these:



hooray for sister swap! love and gratitude to all of you!

that's all i can think of right now...

last night we had a little craft night at a friend's house.
i had a bit of a tummy ache
so kyle made me this:



a get well card
isn't he creative...

Today
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
at 11:47 pm
after being married for approximately
1 year
1 month
10 days
and a couple of hours
we finally
finally


finished our thank-you cards

phew

p.s. photo by my lovely husband

4 things i've learned in the past 45 minutes or so

1. i am an exceedingly bad omelet maker... i just made the ugliest omelet i've ever seen
2. ugly omelets still taste fairly good
3. i don't need to make as many hashbrowns as i do for kyle and i if it's only me eating
4. i hate big messes...

i do not profess to be any sort of amazing housekeeper. for those of you who knew me in my youth and saw the state of my bedroom, it may surprise you that messes bother me... but here's the thing. i tidy. i like to tidy. i like it when everything has it's nice little place and all i have to do is put it there. i find it very satisfying to wake up and make the bed and throw a couple of socks in a laundry hamper and hang up a sweater and be done. i've been very proud of myself the past couple weeks as i've made a point to at least make my bed and wash the dishes before doing anything else (or before leaving the house, at least). i like housekeeping this way. when you do a minimum of work on a regular basis and everything looks good. but as soon as things get worse, i'm toast.

today our kitchen is a mess. not a hideous, horrible, moldy, drippy, crusty mess. just messy. dirty dishes, cupboards open... a mess that comes from only one evening of neglect. one dinner. pasta. not even a terribly messy dinner. but because of these dishes, i've been avoiding the kitchen all day. it's the only thing i've really planned to do for the day, cleaning the kitchen, and it's 2:30pm and i've barely touched it. it overwhelms me. so all day i've been walking past the kitchen and instead of picking up a dish rag and putting on my gloves, to do a job that i know logically would only take me half an hour, i retreat to a different room to knit (i find comfort in the simplicity and organization of 42 soft, grey stitches waiting to become a hat) or i decided that now is the ideal time to break my month-long blogging hiatus. i don't really have anything worthwhile or interesting to say, but i'll post it anyway. just to avoid my kitchen...

merry christmas from us

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

check out tami's boys on her blog. they're quite hilarious.

It's funny how the longer you leave things like these the harder it is to get back into it. You'd think that after weeks of not posting I could think of all kinds of interesting things to say but in reality, the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. I had three weeks off of dance which was lovely but it went so fast and I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped to. i did get some Christmas shopping and knitting done which was satisfying...

Oh here's something: Kyle quit his job at the church. After 6 years of running the youth program he has accepted a new job doing media, photography, video and design work for the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. It's been a bit of an emotionally exhausting process - quitting and telling people and making announcements and whatnot but the hard part is pretty much over (we just have a Christmas party to have and a mini-golf course to build) and we're both really excited about his new job and the opportunities that come with it. So that's good...

Also, we bought a holographic tinsel tree for our apartment. It's a little bit ugly but a little bit lovely. It's a good home for the ornaments I got as wedding gifts - including my little reindeer from my mother-in-law. Every year I search for an ugly ornament for my in-law's tree (a story for another day perhaps). So last year, since I was moving out with my husby, the in-laws reciprocated and bought me a funny little reindeer to start off my own ugly ornament collection... (i think she's quite adorable though, really)



petigre wasn't really sure what to think of our new shiny tree...

a new (and old) family favourite

One of my favourite things about my birthday is that I share it with my Grandma. (I know, my birthday was a month away and I'm still posting about it... sorry) Anyways, it's always been special to me to share my special day with such a special lady and I've enjoyed the way she's often shared her love of antiques and family and history with me on this day. This year however, my Grandma had to leave for BC before we had a chance to celebrate our birthday together. While I missed having dinner with her, it was a special birthday for me anyways because my grandparents generously passed on one of their original hudson's bay blankets. We love it. It's cozy and wooly and classic and historical. And it's become Petigre's absolute favourite place to sleep.





Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! We all love our new blanket and it will always have a place of honour in our home.

guess what

today after dance i had a shower
after the shower i was trying to decide what to wear when someone rang my doorbell. being nude I felt a little frazzled and quickly pulled on a sweat suit of sorts that happened to be handy.
it was the canada post lady with a little package for me!
not only are packages extremely exciting to receive, but it also helped me decide what to wear tonight!



Look what I got! (a lovely notebook, adorable birthday cake lip balm and a very pretty top)




(sorry about the poor quality of my photos recently. In my haste to post about things I've been using my computer's camera which isn't quite up to par. Also, sorry about my messy background. Also sorry that my picture is backwards...)

Thanks Devon and Aleksa! I love everything!
I'll try to post better pictures later but wanted to let you know it all got here safe and sound and that I greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness and your beautiful gifts.

approximately 4 months later...

i finished my mittens!
nothing like a good snow fall, chilly temperatures and icy hands to increase motivation
here is a grainy picture of them (the colours are a bit funny, they're actually a camel colour and a cherry pink):



hooray for warmer hands.
i love being warm.

p.s. the video we made was done with kyle's regular old slr camera (well, not really that old and regualr. but a digital slr, not a video camera). we just did it claymation-style where we'd take a picture, move a smidge, take another one... so the hoverers and the broom flying was just people jumping, taking a small step forward and jumping again, kyle had to do his best to take the picture at the right point in the jump. it was pretty fun.

remember when I mentioned...

the stop animation video we made without any kids at our youth retreat?
here it is. starring Two Thumbs Don, our good friend and mascot.
*p.s. there are some funny things that happen in the background but they happen fast so stay on your toes*


Don takes a walk from pneumanautics on Vimeo.

A long post featuring many birthday highlights

Well, I think this evening officially ends my week of birthday celebrations. It started last Sunday with my sweat pants birthday party (to which I was the only person who wore sweatpants... ). We had a lovely evening with martinis and thai food and movies and pumpkin ice cream. and my two lovely friends.

Monday night was my Thomas family infomercial birthday dinner. It was very sweet of them to make me dinner as my in-laws have had a stressful week caring for Kyle's great aunt who broke her hip at 91 and preparing for a trip to visit Darlene's sister who hasn't been well. I really appreciated them making time for me. We had delicious steaks and visited and I received as seen on tv gifts. I don't know if it was planned to be an infomertial birthday but I very much love my Magic Bullet and my Sham-Wow!. In fact, I currently have muffins in the oven that I made with my magic bullet. What a versatile tool.

Tuesday I went out for lunch with my parents and then Kyle and I had a relaxing birthday celebration since he's been sick all week and felt he might not be very good company if we went ahead with the date he had originally planned. So we walked down to the falafel place for dinner and then came home and watched planet earth. It was nice to have an evening at home with my husband. Plus I got some beautiful gifts!

... As I was writing this, Kyle just sleepily stumbled out of bed and said very groggily "umm.. wife? what smells like heaven in a handbasket?" (I think that's what he said he was pretty mumbley)...

And yesterday Christie and I went to the Don for breakfast and then wandered up and down Osborne. We realized recently how odd it is that we spend a fair amount of time facilitating other people's shopping trips together and never go out shopping on our own. Shopping with a good friend is a pretty fun thing to do.

And last night Kyle and I went and had dinner with Tami and Mike and then Tami and I went on a little date to a house party where we got out legs waxed and eyebrows threaded and Mike and Kyle talked about bicycles and watched a movie.

And last but not least, this evening I'm looking forward to having dinner with my family to close off the birthday ceremonies.

Thanks to everyone who made me feel so loved and special on my birthday!

my lovely little package

Finally, my long overdue pictures of my yarn swap package. Here they are:



Here it is in it's entirety. Delicious chocolate and fun halloween thingies (adorable vintagey halloween cards, stickery things, a little square pumpkin bag) and my favourite - lovely, soft, hand-dyed sock yarn in very pretty colours. I'm so excited to knit myself a new pair of socks. Hooray!





Thank you so much, secret swap person! It was so much fun getting this in the mail. It made my week (2 weeks ago...sorry about the delay)

Well. I have been putting off posting until I can post the pictures of my swap package that arrived last week but as I still don't have these pictures (I should tomorrow!) I decided to go ahead without them to avoid the wrath of the swap monitor who checks weekly to make sure we're posting. (Sorry swap package sender, I love my package I'm just a little disorganized at present) In any case, here I am.
Kyle and I just got home from a weekend in the Whiteshell with a group of high school students. It was a pretty fun weekend. I think it was a good combination of relaxation and activities. We played games and watched movies and spent time outside but also had a fair amount of free time and sleeping in. Yesterday afternoon we gave the kids some options for free time to make sure no one felt like there was nothing to do, one of the options was to make a short movie starring Two Thumbs Don - the pneumanautics mascot (a mannequin man who is a little worse for wear). None of the children chose this option but somehow that didn't stop some of the leaders from jumping on board and creating a stop animation movie that we all found quite hilarious. I will post this shortly.
And now I'm home for a bit and looking forward to a sweat pant birthday party with Christie and Lindsey. hooray!

my week in a nutshell

Well. I think I have more or less recovered from my brief illness (thank you well-wishing commenters!), although I do still have a some mucus-y issues that are accentuated when doing spinning movements (which i probably do more than the average person on account of my profession)
Hmm... What else do I have to tell you today?
Well. I had a lovely weekend. Saturday was Kyle and my dating anniversary and while we are no longer dating we thought it was a good excuse to spend the day together. So we slept in Saturday morning and I made eggs benedict for breakfast and then we wandered our neighbourhood, a church nearby was having a gigantic book sale so we stopped in there and then made our rounds through the boutiques and antique stores in Osborne Village. We finished our wanderings by picking up some steaks and wine and went home to relax. We had a lovely dinner and watched a movie and enjoyed a day in eachother's company. Hooray for anniversaries! I'm quite happy to celebrate two in a year. It's nice.
Here's a hilarious picture I found of Kyle and I the summer after we started dating. Look at the hair on that boy...



I tried to find a recent picture of us but somehow i didn't manage to... i'm guessing there might be some on kyle's laptop. but here's at least a picture of grown up kyle and the most recent couple picture we have on this computer from last summer, shortly after our engagement:



And Sunday I wrote thank you cards all afternoon (I know... They really should be done already...) and then Christie and Lindsey came over and we had wine and made apple crisp and visited. It's lovely to have nice girlfriends. We have made a standing date for Sunday nights this year and so far it's worked out really well. A nice way to end a weekend.

This week hasn't been overly eventful. It involved a lot of dancing, Monday night my mom and I went on a lovely shopping date... That's really about it (other than one exciting thing that deserves it's own post - to come soon... once i find my usb cord to upload the necessary photos).

And now I'm looking forward to thanksgiving! We have dinner with Kyle's family tomorrow and from there we're heading out to my family's cottage to hang out with these people (and some other people too):





Happy Thanksgiving!